


Silent Night

by Joels_revolver



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28357518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joels_revolver/pseuds/Joels_revolver
Summary: It's Ellie's first Christmas in Jackson and she's determined to make it a good one. Joel is in for a long day.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	Silent Night

The door to Joel's bedroom slams open.

"Joel!"

Joel is instantly awake, reaching for his revolver under his pillow. He sits up in bed, pointing it at the door, ready to shoot whatever threat had Ellie yelling his name like that, only to find... no threat. Just Ellie seeming not the least bit fazed at having a gun pointed at her.

"Oh, you're awake.”

Joel sighs, dropping the hand holding the revolver and pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. “Yes, I'm awake..."

"Well, get dressed. We have plans, remember?"

Joel can't for the life of him remember any plans. Admittedly though, one half of his brain is still asleep.

"Remind me again?”

"Joel," Ellie says slowly and it sounds a bit like she’s talking to a child, "it's Christmas and you promised we'd get a tree."

Ah Christ, he did promise that.

"Regretting that now," he mutters.

"Don't be such a Grinch and get ready.”

"Do you even know who that is?" Joel asks, sitting up on the side of the bed. 

"Yeah, Tommy told me. It might or might not have been in reference to you." 

"Right, 'course he did." 

Joel isn't usually a Grinch, he really isn't. It's hard not to get excited for Christmas when you have a kid, but the last twenty or so Christmases left a lot to be desired and his expectations for this one aren’t too high.

It also happens to be nine in the morning and he only came back from his night shift at six, so that may have something to do with, too.

"Gimme a second," he says, dragging a hand over his face.

Something smacks him in the face and drops into his lap. A shirt. Joel looks up at Ellie, retort on his lips, but before he gets the chance to say anything he sees a pair of jeans coming at him and his reflexes are just quick enough to catch them before the belt buckle can carve another scar in his nose.

"Ellie. What the hell."

Ellie grins at him. "I just saved you the steps to the closet. You're welcome."

" _Saved me the steps to the-_ " but Ellie isn't listening. She's already rushing out of the room and pounding down the stairs. 

"We're leaving at half past!" 

Joel sighs. This is shaping out to be a very long day.

Ten minutes later he is trudging down the stairs into the kitchen, making a beeline for the coffee maker. Ellie is sitting at the table, eating a slice of toast with one hand and sketching in her journal with the other. Joel takes a look through the window. Thick snowflakes are making their way down, as if there isn’t more than enough snow for his taste already. Icicles are hanging from the roof above the porch. In short, it looks to be freezing outside.

“Christ, I need a coffee.”

"Already made you some," Ellie says without looking up.

Joel stops in his tracks. "You made me coffee?"

"Yep." With her pencil she points at a steaming mug of coffee sitting on the counter next to a travel mug, hopefully filled with the same beverage. "One for now and one for the road."

Huh. Maybe this day could yet be saved.

Joel takes the mug, holding it against his chest as he leans back against the counter. The scent reaches his nostrils and he feels his spirits wakening.

"What are you drawing?" he asks.

Ellie grins like she's waited for him to ask the question and raises her journal to show him the drawing.

Honestly, Joel doesn't know what he expected.

It's a picture of him wearing one of hose ugly knitted sweaters, a Christmas hat and an expression like he wants to commit a murder. It's captioned _Merry fucking Christmas._

"Very funny."

"l know. Might just be my best work yet."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Joel. Drink your coffee."

Joel does as he's told and promptly suffers a coughing fit.

"Need a hand?" Ellie asks while he pounds a fist on his chest, trying to get his lungs back under control.

"Jesus Christ," he chokes out.

“That bad, huh."

"No, no, it's just-" he's interrupted by another cough, "strong, Jesus. How many beans did you put in there?"

"I don't know, how many are you supposed to put in there?"

"Less, definitely."

"Well, next time get your ass out of bed and you can make it yourself."

“Maybe next time don't wake me at nine in the morning when I just had a night shift."

“Well shit, Joel, it's not my fault Christmas is today."

Joel rubs a hand down his neck. “Is it really today?"

"Yep, the calendar says so."

"You mean that calendar over there from 2013?"

Ellie gives him a look. “That's beside the point."

"Uh-huh."

"Anyway, Maria's super accurate calendar says so too, so. Are we getting our tree or what?"

"Can I have some breakfast first?"

Ellie slumps back into the chair with a dramatic sigh. "Fine."

So Joel shovels down some food, adds a splash of milk to his mug when Ellie isn't looking because _Jesus God_ , that's some strong coffee, and they head out; Joel in what Ellie likes to call his _Old man jacket_ and a scarf, Ellie in her usual winter coat and a pair of mittens that are a little too big on her. Joel tried putting a hat on her, but she outright refused, stating that she's not a hat person. Joel acquiesced because quite frankly neither is he.

The walk to the gate is cold. Joel tugs his scarf a little tighter, half regretting that he didn't put on some gloves, too. He puts one hand in his jacket pocket instead, the other around his travel mug. At least the biting wind is doing an excellent job of keeping him awake. He steals a glance at Ellie. She doesn't seem to mind the cold too much. Hands on the straps of her backpack she's quietly humming to herself, something that sounds like the new songs Joel’s been teaching her. Not exactly a Christmas song, but he can't in good conscience have Ellie walking around not knowing how to play _Hurt_.

"Hey, do you think we should get a mistletoe?" she suddenly asks.

"Why, you hoping to sneak a kiss from someone?"

“Haha. _No._ ” And then she smirks up at him, "although it might help speeding things along for you a little."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, according to Jesse's mum half the women here have the hots for you."

And that marks the second time of the day that Joel chokes on his coffee.

"Yeah, I don't get it either," Ellie says.

"Christ, _the hots_?"

"Her words, not mine."

Joel clears his throat. “I find that very hard to believe.”

“Actually, Esther the other day-”

"Hold up," Joel says with a gesture of his hand, “I am ending this conversation now.”

"But I haven't told you the best part yet."

"I don't wanna know. Let's just get that damn tree."

Tommy's at the gate when they get there. He stops talking to whoever he was talking to when he sees them (Joel never did learn everyone's names) and comes over.

"You two heading out?"

"Yep, we're getting a tree," Ellie answers. "And a mistletoe," she says with an insistence directed at Joel.

Tommy lifts an inquisitive eyebrow. "Mistletoe?"

"Yeah, we're gonna get Joel a girlfriend. Isn't that right Joel?"

"I don't remember actually agreeing to any of that."

"No arguments, I'm gonna go get Shimmer." Ellie says and speeds off towards the stables. Tommy and Joel stare after her with a mix of amusement and fond resignation.

"Thought you had a night shift," Tommy says.

"Oh, I did."

Tommy laughs, clapping a hand on Joel’s back. "You know, I'm glad I'm just the Uncle."

Joel smiles silently. He's tired and he's cold and he's content. Here, standing in the snow and the freezing wind, watching Ellie pat Shimmer's neck with a smile on her face he feels at peace. He may get dragged out of bed and into the cold after barely three hours of sleep, but he wouldn't change a thing.

He takes a sip of his coffee to hide his smile. "We’ll probably be gone for a few hours, do you still have the-"

“‘Course I do, I’ll get right to it. She’s gonna love it.”

Joel lets out a breath. “Yeah, I hope so.”

***

"Okay, I'm thinking this one."

Joel eyes the chosen tree with a sceptical frown. "That's the biggest tree out here, damn thing's twice my height."

“It's not twice your height, Joel."

"Well, it's twice yours."

"Fuck. You. We can't have a tree that's smaller than you, how pathetic would that look?"

"You do realise we're gonna have to haul that thing back home.”

"Uh, yeah? That's why you're here."

"I see."

They’ve been out here long enough for Joel’s coffee to go cold (not that that has stopped him from drinking it). Once they reached their spot it took Ellie about fifteen minutes until she’d forbidden him from choosing a tree. Apparently the ones he suggested were too small, or too sad, or too… just plain not good enough, so he’d been banned to watch from the sidelines and await his cue. Which is now.

Joel steps back from the tree he's been leaning against and reaches back to take the axe from his backpack. “Right then." He steps next to Ellie by the tree and holds out his coffee mug. “Hold this.”

Ellie reaches forward but instead of taking the mug she takes the axe from Joel’s hand. “Why, thank you.”

“No, hang on, that’s not what I-”

“Joel, I totally got this.”

Joel lets out a breath. He knows when to pick his battles. "Alright, just... don't chop your leg of an accident or something."

"I think I can handle it." Ellie says.

And handle it she does. With an accuracy a fifteen year old probably shouldn't have she swings the axe into the tree. It takes her about a dozen swings then the tree starts to tip over. For a terrifying second, that sends his heart beating through Joel's ribcage, it looks like the tree is going to fall onto Ellie. He takes a quick step forward to pull her back, but in the very last moment Ellie steps out of the way and the tree crashes into the ground, harmlessly.

"Nelly, that thing almost took my head off."

Joel drags a hand over his face. "That thing just took years off my life."

"You know, you say that so often I'm not sure you have too many left to spare. Still though," Ellie props the axe on her shoulder, looking at the tree with a proud smile, "for a first time chopping a Christmas tree it was pretty good."

Personally, Joel could have done without the near heartattack, but those seem to have become a fixture in his life, since meeting Ellie. It comes with being a father.

They hitch the tree to Joel's horse, but before he can mount up Ellie calls his name.

"Joel, look," she says, finger pointed at something behind him, "mistletoes. I don't think I can reach them though."

Joel turns around. Sure enough there are mistletoes hanging in the tree, pretty high up, though. She'd have to climb her way up there, or-

"C' mon. I'll boost you up."

Joel positions himself under the tree, interlocking his hands in front of his lap. Ellie steps from his hands on his shoulders, grabbing a branch for balance, while Joel has his hands on her ankles. He can't see what she's doing. but there's a lot of yanking and jolting going on, that do his back and shoulders no favor. 

"Ellie, how's it going?" he grunts out. 

"The stupid thing won't come off." There's another yank and the rustling of leaves, followed by a noise of frustration. "Hold on, I need my knife." 

"Ellie, be careful-"

"Got it!" Ellie says triumphantly, dropping the mistletoe on the ground and jumping off Joel's shoulders. "Mission accomplished."

"Great, "Joel says, rolling his shoulders. "'s that mean we can go home now?"

"Yes, old man, we can go home home now."

The smile on Ellie's face might just make the pain in his back and shoulders worth it.

***

They leave the horses at the stable, which means they're carrying the tree through half of Jackson. Joel is holding the stump, Ellie the other end. They sure make a funny picture juggling a tree that is at least four feet longer than it needs to be through the streets of Jackson.

It’s a real pain in the ass when they try to get it through the door, Ellie and Joel both ending up pulling at the stump end. To top things off, though, when they finally get the tree to the sitting room, it's so tall that the tip of it bows against the ceiling.

“Joel."

"Yep."

"The tree is too fucking tall."

"You don't say."

So Joel saws the tip off.

"I've just thought of something," Ellie says while Joel is getting the tree upright again.

"What?"

" Do we even have decorations?"

"Uh..."

So they scour the house for anything they can find. Ellie actually comes across a dusty box of Christmas decorations in the attic, left behind by the previous owners of the house.

Making sense of the tangled mess that are the fairy lights offers a whole new challenge

"This is such bullshit," Ellie says, kneeling in front of the box with the coiled cable in her hands, “why would you leave light chains like that?"

"You don't," Joel answers, working on uncoiling his portion of the chain, "you put 'em in a box all orderly and next thing you know it's a tangled mess." When Ellie doesn't say anything Joel looks over at her and finds her staring back at him with an expression like he just tried explaining quantum physics to her.

"You know..." Joel continues, a little uncertain now, “same concept as when you put your headphones into your pocket and seconds later they're..." Ellie's expression doesn't clear up and Joel gives up explaining the struggles of 2013 to her. "Well, I suppose you wouldn't know.'' He clears his throat. “Anyway, hold this end and we'll try to make some sense of it."

"Yeah, let's.”

After a lot of fiddling, patience on Joel's side, and cursing on Ellie's they get the light around the tree. Next are the Christmas balls. The thing is, whatever tree the former owners used to have, it sure was one hell of a lot smaller than theirs because even after they put every bit of decoration they have on the tree, it still looks... empty.

"You just had to get the biggest tree there was”.

“Yeah okay, Joel.”

Ellie looks at the tree, lips pursed in thought. “How about this, we put some of your little wood animals in it."

" _My little wood animals?_ "

"Yeah. I know you're hiding tons of them in your room, it'll be cool."

Joel hesitates, scratching at the back of his head "I don't know..."

"I'm gonna get 'em'' Ellie rushes upstairs, ignoring Joel's discomfort completely. He sighs but it comes out sounding more fond than annoyed. Ellie comes back with a box filled with every single carving Joel has ever done - at least that what it looks like - even some of his… lesser fine works. The tree ends up getting owls and bears and wolves and eagles and whatever else Joel came up with in the past months, interspersed with normal Christmas balls. On the top, instead of a star, sits Ellie's astronaut figure. Joel can look back on 30 years of Christmas trees, but he's pretty sure he's never seen one as strange as this one.

There's a bit of a flicker every now and then when Joel switches the lights on but other than that...

"Tell me this isn't the coolest tree ever,'' Ellie says with a proud smile.

"Well, it's definitely the strangest."

“It’s our tree. It's cool."

Ellie is still looking at the tree when Joel smiles at her.

_Our tree_

"Yeah, it's pretty cool."

The moment gets interrupted by a knock on the door, and it's not a normal knock. It has a rhythm to it that has Ellie standing up straighter and diverting her gaze from the tree. 

"I'll get it,” she says and walks to the door a little too quickly to seem nonchalant.

Joel's curiosity is piqued. He follows her to the hall a moment later, slowly and quietly, carefully peeking past the door frame so as to not make himself be seen.

It's Dina at the door. She and Ellie talk some -Joel can't make out the words- and then Dina smirks, pointing at the mistletoe hanging above the door. Joel can't see Ellie's eyes but he can imagine them growing wide as saucers when Dina leans forward and kisses her.

Joel turns away then, because clearly that wasn't meant for his eyes, not to mention the fact that he and Ellie haven't really had... _that_ conversation yet. He's pretty sure Ellie thinks he doesn't know, but with the way Ellie's eyes light up every time she sees Dina or how often she draws that girl, it's not too hard to put two and two together.

Joel has a hard time hiding his smile when Ellie comes back, pink cheeked with a glow to her eyes.

Yeah, the back pain is definitely worth it.

"Who was at the door?" Joel asks casually.

"Oh, that was just Dina wishing us a Merry Christmas. And here," Ellie says, giving him a bag of... coffee beans. Huh. “She dropped this off for you."

"Well that’s good considering you put half my stash of beans in the coffee this morning."

"I was doing you a favor. Had a feeling you needed the caffeine."

" 's that right?"

She doesn't tell him about the kiss and that's fine really. She'll tell him when she's ready. Joel just needs to make sure he's there when she is.

"Where did she get the coffee?" Joel asks, putting the beans in their proper jar. 

"Found it on patrol, since, you know, _she's allowed to go on patrols._ "

“Age restriction is sixteen." And thank God for that. Means Joel won't have to worry about Ellie going on patrols for another six months. 

“I'd find you so much coffee, if I was allowed to go on patrols. I bet I'd be really great at finding some."

"I've done a pretty good job at finding my own coffee so far. Reckon I can do without your assistance for another half year."

"So much coffee, Joel."

Joel leans back against the counter with a sigh. "We'll discuss it with Maria in a few weeks, how's that sound?"

"Yes!"

"Now, I ain't making any promises. It's Maria's call."

“l'm not worried about that. Contrary to you Maria is a rational human being, she'll see sense."

"Hang on now-"

"Anyway. It's Christmas and I, uh... " Ellie looks nervous all of a sudden, fiddling with her fingers. "I got a little something. It's... in the sitting room," she says, pointing behind her and leaving the kitchen a little awkwardly, probably expecting Joel to follow her. So he does. Probably just as awkwardly. He didn't expect a present. At all. Not even once entertained the idea of getting one. He has no idea what to say. The last time he got a present was… yeah, something he prefers not to think about.

Ellie stops in front of the bookshelf. There's a section there for her comics and she reaches behind them to pull out a wooden box about the size of a book.

“Here."

Joel takes it from her and after a second of hesitation he lifts the lid of. A small laugh escapes him when he sees what’s inside. It's a knife in a leather sheath. The handle has his initials engraved into the wood, rosewood if Joel is not mistaken. He's gotten a pretty keen eye for that sort of thing. Setting the box aside, he takes the knife out to slide it out of its sheath. The blade is broad, made of steel that gleams in the light, a good five inches long. It’s a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. It'll do quite nicely on patrols.

"What do you think?" Joel looks at Ellie, a nervous smile on her lips.

God, he's bad at this.

"Yeah, it's good. Really good," he says and hopes that it doesn't sound as awkward as he feels. Sarah had always teased him mercilessly about his awkwardness whenever he was on the receiving end of a present, but she'd always been able to hear the sincerity in his words. He hopes Ellie does too. 

"What did you have to trade for this?" he asks turning the knife over in his hands.

"Uh, apparently the blacksmith's son is a huge Savage Starlight fan, so... I gave him a few of my comics."

Joel stops in his inspection of the blade and locks eyes with Ellie. "You... _traded_ your Savage Starlight comics?"

"Eh, it's not a big deal, I mean, you manage to turn up with a new one almost once a week so…”

Joel chuckles. "That I do." He slides the knife back into its sheath, ruffling Ellie's hair with his free hand. "Thanks, kiddo."

A pleased smile breaks over her face ."It was for my own sanity really. Seriously, Joel. I see you crafting another shiv I'm gonna lose it."

“Noted." He puts the knife back into the box and closes the lid. "Suppose, it's time for your present now. The stars are out, aren't they?"

"Uhm, I think so."

"Well, come on then." Joel says with a secretive smile. Here's to hoping Tommy did his job. "You may wanna put on a jacket."

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Just through the backdoor." They each put on their coats and Joel leads them out into the backyard. There in the snow, under the stars, is a telescope.

Ellie gasps at the sight of it. "Oh my God, Joel!”

Joel feels his chest swell up with warmth at the joy on Ellie's face. "Merry Christmas, kiddo.''

Ellie doesn't hear him. Her hands are on the telescope, inspecting it from all sides and angles. "Oh man, this is so cool."

"Here." Joel takes a chair and puts it in front of the telescope. “Have a look then."

Ellie plops down in the chair and looks through the telescope. "This is the coolest shit ever. You gotta see this, Joel." Ellie scoots to the side a little to make room on the chair for Joel and he sits down next to her. Ellie leaves him the telescope and Joel lowers his head to take a look.

"Uh, okay, what am I looking at?"

"That's Pegasus right there."

"Pegasus? Ain't that supposed to look like a horse?"

"It does look like a horse. There's the legs and the neck. I guess it's sorta jumping."

Joel tries to see it, he really does, without much success "Huh, Looks more like... well, like a whole lotta nothing really."

"Alright, move over, I'll look for something simpler."

Joel leans back to let Ellie have a look. "Guess I don't have the eye for it. Big dipper and Little dipper, that's about all the stargazing I can do."

"Well, that won't do. I can't be associated with someone who doesn't know the constellations."

So Ellie makes an effort to show him every constellation she can find in the sky and Joel continues to be a useless student to the point where he just leans back and lets Ellie explore the night sky by herself. They sit out there for quite a while, huddled together on the chair in the cold. Joel's three hours of sleep are really starting to take their toll on him, so he closes his eyes for a bit, humming every now and then when Ellie tells him another space fact.

The world somehow shrinks down to this moment, to the two of them sitting in the back yard and Joel finds himself grateful. Grateful to get to experience this moment with Ellie, grateful to have her by his side. In this very moment maybe Joel is just grateful to be alive.

He peeks one eye open. Ellie isn't looking through the telescope anymore, she's just staring upwards at the moon. As if she feels his eyes on her, she turns her gaze at him. Her lips quirk up into a half smile that looks a bit sad somehow. "l've never been this close," she says, "to the moon I mean. It's… pretty amazing."

It is pretty amazing. Even Joel can appreciate a full moon, shining bright enough to make the snow glitter and illuminate Ellie's face. There's something quite magical about it.

"So," he says, "first Christmas. What's your verdict?”

Ellie's smile loses its sadness as it stretches from cheek to cheek. “It was... just about everything I was hoping for really. We got a cool tree. I got the best Christmas present ever and a nice view to top it all of, so… yeah. It was pretty good."

"Yeah," Joel gives a satisfied sigh. "I think so, too.”

It's good. It's theirs. It's them. And it doesn't get much better than that.


End file.
